We are failing to provide children with the tools to be agents of their own lives –

Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield

• Children between 3 and 4 years old spend over 8 hours on the internet per week

• Half of the children between 11 and 16 years find it easier to be themselves on the internet

• Almost a third of 15 year olds admit to have sent a naked photo of themselves at least once

• Over a third of children between 12 and 15 years have seen hateful content in the last year

A report published by the Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield calls for the English Government to make three direct interventions to ensure that children have the right skills to be good citizens online. These include a compulsory digital citizenship programme to be introduced in schools for children between 4 and 14 years old; simplified terms and conditions for digital services offered to children and a Digital Ombudsman to mediate between children under 18 and social media companies.

In the report entitled “Growing Up Digital”, it was found that children who sign up to social media often do not understand the terms and conditions they are signing to. In fact, the Commissioner tested the Terms and Conditions of Instagram which as a case in point is used by 56% of 12 to 15 year olds and 43% of 8 to 11 year olds. The terms and conditions’ document is 15 pages and 5,000 words long and clearly not understandable by children and teenagers.

For this reason, a law firm was asked to draft a simpler version of the document, which was then presented once again to the children and teenagers. Instagram was only chosen as an example. In fact, the terms and conditions of social media are very similar to each other.

This time, children said that terms and conditions should be shown to those who sign up because otherwise you would not really know what you are signing to. Others said that if they knew these conditions, they would not have used the medium so often or else would not have shared so much information about themselves. Other children and teenagers even started considering these mediums as weird and opted to stop using it.

An important observation was made by a teenager who said that social media companies know that children and teenagers are not reading the terms and conditions because they are difficult to understand. She said that if these documents had to be understandable, then people would think twice before using certain media.

social media companies know that children and teenagers are not reading the terms and conditions because they are difficult to understand

In the report, the Commissioner also points out the fact that children’s rights are not protected online and therefore they need to have a digital champion who can mediate between them and social media companies. The Commissioner urges the British Government to draft a law which is similar to the General Data Protection Regulation and which includes the facility of removing online content from the internet if children ask for it. This is very important in cases of online bullying.

The report also refers to the situation in Australia where a Children’s eSafety Commissioner was established to administer complaints about online bullying. This has led to an efficient system where the Commissioner responds to the complaints within 7 hours and services receiving a notice from the Commissioner usually comply by the end of the next business day.

For this reason, the Children’s Commissioner feels that Government should establish a Digital Ombudsman who acts as a mediator between children and social media companies. This will also help for the collection of data about how many reports are being made, what is being reported and how are these reports dealt with. In this regard, the Commissioner suggests that her powers of data collection from public organizations are extended to gather data related to complaints, reports or requests for removal of information by children under 18 years from social media companies and search engines.

Moreover, the Commissioner shows its support to the review of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which according to her should become up to date for the digital age.